FFXIV: Anima Weapons; A New Saga Begins

To even begin the quest you must have completed the main scenario quest ‘Heavensward.’ The relic quest begins in Idyllshire from Rowena called An unexpected proposal (X:5 Y:5).

Some parts of the quest is job specific which means you can only advance if you’re on the job that you accepted the quest. After the first quest, it is a job specific quest so make sure you don’t change jobs!

The next quest is from Ardashir and it’s called A soul without life. This step is where having a Zeta gives an advantage because you can skip it entirely. In order to get the relic you will need two special nodules. Astral nodule and Umbral nodule. And how to acquire these? Well, you remember the Atma grinding of the original relic?

Yea, something like that.

Part 1: A soul without life
Participating in FATE’s in the Heavenward areas gives a low chance of dropping Luminous crystals. And you need 3 of each crystal. The locations have a specific crystal so for example, you can’t grind Sea of Clouds for the Fire crystal. The bright side to this is the crystals can drop on any class or job regardless of level. All you need to do is complete the FATE.

Wind crystal is from Sea of Clouds
Fire crystal is from Azys Lla
Lightning crystal is from Churning Mists
Ice crystal is from Coerthas Western Highlands
Earth crystal is from Dravanian Forelands
Water crystal is from Dravanian Hinterlands

Once you have 3 of each, exchange them to Sydony. Astral nodule is exchanged for 3 wind, fire and lightning crystals while Umbral noduble is exchanged for 3 ice, earth and water crystals. Should you wish to skip this step due to having a Zeta, you must exchange the Zeta for the crystals. In doing so you will lose the Zeta so only part if this is no problem(you can buy a replica Zeta from the Junkmonger for glamour purposes).

Give the nodules to Ardashir to complete the quest and acquire the first anima relic weapon. It’s an ilvl 170 weapon but we’re not done yet! To enhance it to the 200 state we’ll be completing the quest Toughening Up.

Part 2: Toughening up
This step requires you to complete ten dungeons. Thankfully you only need to do them once, no going after a low drop chance item. The dungeons are as follows(and you must do them in order):
Snowcloak
Sastasha(hard)
Qarn (Hard)
Keeper of the Lake
Wanderer’s Palace (Hard)
Amdapor Keep (Hard)
Dusk Vigil
Sohm Al
The Aery
The Vault

Part 3: Coming Into Its Own
The last part of the current relic step is items. You need a total of 80 items unidentifiable items(20x unidentifiable ore, 20x unidentifiable shell, 20x unidentifiable seeds and 20x unidentifiable bone) as well as 16 HQ crafted items (Adamantite Francesca HQ, Titanium Alloy Mirror HQ, Dispelling Arrow HQ, Kingcake HQ). to turn in for the 4 required items for the quest. There items that you are grinding all this for are(and yes, they are specialist recipes!):
Enchanted Rubber
Fast-drying Carboncoat
Divine Water
Fast-acting Allagan Catalyst

There are a few ways to obtain the items and can be combined with others such as Beast tribe vendors, and poetics or seals and running Alexander. The values are for 1 item(680 poetics to trade in for 1 unidentifiable bone for example).
Obtaining the items:
Unidentifiable bone requires any of the following:
680 Poetics
Amalj’aa Vendor – 13 Tokens (1 per lvl 48 quest)
10x Precision Gordian Bolt (1 per A1 kill)
1000x Allied Seals
Vanu Vendor – 18 Tokens (1 per quest)

Not quite the end
While part 3 is the final step of the current relic chain, it doesn’t end there. Future patches will mean we can enhance it even further and I dread whatever other grind they might have us do. It is a grind but it’ll give an ilvl 210 weapon and it’s going to be BiS until the next raid tier. Just remember not to burn out and that it is a game; if you’re getting frustrated on any step then have a break.